Friday, March 11, 2011

PCC Saves The Day!

Well I would have failed today, yes, day one.That is the life of a graduate student I guess.Pretty dumb of me to start the whole grain challenge the week of final exams.I arrived home at 7 pm today and brainstormed how I could quickly make a batch of whole grains.Now there are some grains that do cook quickly, (don’t worry I’ll be eating them later this week without a doubt) but I just couldn’t pull together a real meal that was worthy to blog about.Here is where my near failure turned into success, yeah for PCC natural markets!I realize how lucky I am to have a PCC right down the street from my house and while I have to admit, I did kinda cheat on my first day, (hey, I never said I was going to cook a different whole grain each day, just eat one) I do have a healthy dinner after a long, busy day.

I decided to get something that I usually don’t make at home.That turned out to be wild rice.I rarely prepare it, but it is so delicious.PCC makes a great wild rice salad called “Emerald City Salad”, after Seattle of course.One of my instructors at Bastyr teaches how to make it yourself on her website.Here is the link: http://www.cookusinterruptus.com/index.php?video_id=34

And now for the fun facts: wild rice is the ONLY grain native to North America!It is actually the seed of a marsh grass plant.It is pretty cool because it contains lysine, an essential amino acid that other rice, and most other grains for that matter, don’t have.It also has lots of B vitamins and magnesium and one serving provides 15% of the daily value for zinc.Zinc is a powerful antioxidant that may be beneficial shortening the duration of the common cold.

Thanks PCC for saving my dinner, my blog, and my health!

(A close up of the delicious brown rice, there is also bell pepper, and fennel in there...yum!)